Rogue
by AquilaKate
Summary: An injured Steve and his hobbling sidekick, Kono, escape the hospital to track down a ring of gun smugglers that nearly killed them. Danny and Chin are, of course, thrilled.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I most certainly do not own Hawaii Five-0. Or any other television series, for that matter.**

**Prologue**

His ears are ringing and it has nothing to do with the explosion he's just survived.

This lecture is worthy of the Danny Williams hall of fame. Fifth place, maybe tied for fourth. He's been at it for thirteen minutes without pausing for air, and if he doesn't let up soon, Steve may be forced to press the call button for the nurse to administer oxygen. But for now, Danny seems to be holding his own without becoming preoccupied with a task as time consuming as breathing.

"Tell me again," he says, bringing his pacing to a halt directly in front of Steve's bed. "_How_ much time was left on the timer when you discovered the bomb?"

Steve sighs. "We've established how much time-"

"_Twenty-four seconds. _Now, I'm not an expert on the subject, so I'll ask you. Is twenty-four seconds enough time to get out of that warehouse, into the parking lot, _unscathed_?"

That's not what happened in their case. Steve has scratches and cuts along the left side of his body, looks like he went three rounds with a cheese grater and lost. His shoulder is especially painful, but at least it's not his shooting arm. Kono's lighter, so she was thrown a little further, and her bad knee took the brunt of the damage. So no, they were not _unscathed_.

"Probably," he admits, "If you rush."

"Well, there is bomb on the premises, so yes, you're in _quite_ the hurry. Better question. Is twenty-four seconds enough time to _attempt a search of the top floor_ of that premises and still get out unscathed?"

Kono snickers from her bed across the room, maybe a little too courageous from the pain meds being pumped into her, and Danny whirls around to face his new target. "Something funny, Officer Kalakaua? Is there _anything_ funny about where we are right now?"

She shakes her head, halfheartedly, and Steve sighs in relief, grateful to have his partner's attention directed elsewhere. Danny narrows his eyes, now officially on the offensive. "Are _you_ laughing, Lietenant Kelly?"

Chin is most certainly _not_ laughing from his position next to his cousin's bed. In fact, Steve's not sure that the older man will crack a smile for _weeks_ after seeing the damage done to the knee that ended Kono's surfing career. Slowly, he shakes his head, giving Kono a disappointed look that prods at her drug-addled mind and leaves her squirming.

"Sorry, cuz."

Danny clears his throat.

"Sorry, brah."

Slightly deflated, the detective sighs and turns to address both of them. "Do not ever do this again."

He gets mumbled agreements in response and rolls his eyes, but seems to relax. "We have to get back to work," he says, glancing apologetically at Chin, who wants to wait for the orthopedist to come and check Kono's knee. "Stay here. Don't give anyone any trouble or _so help me_-"

"We'll be fine," Steve promises. "Call if you get anything on Downey's whereabouts."

The two uninjured members of Five-0 exchange a long look, and Steve knows he's not going to like what the have to say. "You have a head injury you're not telling us about?" Danny asks finally, flipping through his partner's chart like he knows what he's looking for. "We cleared Downey and his boys."

"For murder, yes. But not for planting the bomb in the warehouse."

They make uncomfortable eye contact, again. "What? What's with the looks?"

Chin is gently patting his cousin's ankle through her blanket, looking torn between his loyalty to Steve and his own very firm grasp on reality. "Steve, it's not likely that they had anything to do with the bombing. They only got out of lock up twenty minutes before it happened."

"I saw Downey, okay," Steve insists, carefully rotating his shoulder as he pulled himself into a more upright position. "Ask Kono."

Kono shifts uneasily, and Steve realizes that she was face down in the parking lot, clutching her knee, while Downey was making his escape. "He was there. Just look into it."

Nodding slightly, Danny puts the chart back on the bed and announces that they really have to get back to catching the _real_ murderer now, but when Steve presses, he agrees. "Yeah, babe. We'll try." Chin stands to join him, but pauses to drop a quick kiss to Kono's forehead. "Listen to the doctors," he orders, "Don't make me call your mother."

She feigns a shudder and offers her cousin a winning smile, hoping to make him forget that he's supposed to be angry with her. He sees right through it, but smiles back anyway, before joining Danny in the hallway.

When they're alone, Steve and Kono are quiet, nursing their injured limbs and egos, until Kono breaks the ice. "Well, this sucks."

Steve grins.

* * *

The orthopedist does eventually come to evaluate her knee, so Kono disappears behind the curtain, and he doesn't hear anything other than pained hisses for the next few minutes. While she and the doctor are talking lowly, Steve takes a minute to think about their case and how he's going to close it from a hospital bed.

Tanner Downey flew in to visit his sister, the wife of their murder victim, a suspicious three days before his brother-in-law's death. For some reason, he brought four of his associates with him for this little family reunion, and Five-0's suspicions were immediately raised. Turns out, Downey's brother-in-law owed him a return on a pretty substantial loan, and he and his buddies came to Hawaii to collect. When he couldn't come up with the money, Downey set up shop in his sister's garage. Steve suspected that they were bringing automatic weapons from the mainland to sell on the island, but before they could bust him, Downey scrounged up an alibi for their murder case.

They'd have no reason to investigate them further if Steve wasn't so sure that he'd seen the crew at the scene of the explosion, a warehouse that their murder victim was making payments on. Since the man could barely afford his monthly grocery bill, chances were good that Downey was using his brother-in-law's name to rent the warehouse, not that there was any way to prove it after the fire. Probably, he was on the run and getting farther every minute.

Which was exactly why he had to get back to business.

He's made a decision by the time the doctor leaves, and he's too busy turning it over in his head to notice how quiet Kono's become.

"Everything okay?" he asks. "What did the doc say?"

Kono shrugs, sucking on her bottom lip and looking kind of dejected. "Yeah, boss. All good."

He'd be worried, but she seems to perk up when he explains his plan, and by the time they're on their feet again, pulling their street clothes back on, she seems cheerful at the thought of the prison break they're about to stage.

Steve scowls as he pulls his shirt on, surprised by how much pain he's still feeling, even with the meds he's on. The curtain's drawn, but he can hear Kono hopping into her jeans, swearing when she puts too much weight on her knee. When she throws the curtain back, her hair is mussed and he's pretty sure her shirt is on backwards, but instead of commenting, he nod toward the crutches that are leaning against the wall, "Need those?"

"Optional," Kono clarifies, giving him the same smile she used to charm her cousin earlier. It actually works on Steve, who hasn't had enough practice to properly resist, so he leaves the crutches where they are and lets her lean on his injured shoulder as they shuffle out into the hallway.

Off to a good start.


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One**

They leave their cell phones in the hospital room because one of the nurses is already threatening to call Kono's emergency contact, and the last thing they need is Chin tracking their GPS signals. Additionally, Kono's tablet is sitting on her desk in HQ, and Steve's only technology is both _ancient_ by Kono's standards and in his home, under Doris' watchful eye.

Oh, and they're sort of stuck in the hospital parking lot without a vehicle. That is also an issue.

Kono spots a payphone outside the emergency room entrance, and Steve shakes down a passerby for some change because neither can remember how to make a collect call. Their contact options are severely limited, but eventually Steve tempts Kamekona with the idea of being an "acting agent of the police" and he shows up to save the day.

In the shrimp truck.

"Really?" Steve asks, watching Kono hoist herself into the back of the truck. "You couldn't have brought the car?"

Kamekona shrugs. "I got tour business to take care of, brah. Need to be _professional_. You don't like it, next time you get your own surveillance vehicle."

After warning them to pay for whatever they eat, he heads on his merry way, leaving them with their newly acquired shrimp truck and not much else. There's no way to track Downey and his crew without doing a little digging, so their mission is now to find a computer that they can take with them and use privately.

Which is how Steve ends up sitting at a kitchen table, having awkward coffee with one of Kono's aunties while Kono schmoozes her younger cousin, Lani, for the use of her laptop and cell phone. The older woman peers at him through narrowed eyes, as the two cousins disappear into the other room. "So," she says, taking a long sip from her mug. "You're the lieutenant commander that has our Kono gallivanting all over the island, getting shot at."

Steve blinks.

"No, ma'am. You're thinking of my partner. My name is Danny Williams."

When Kono's pull as the cool, older, pro-surfer turned cop cousin comes through for them, he's already halfway out the door. "Say hello to Chin for me, dear," her aunt calls, as Steve helps her limp down the front steps. "Goodbye Detective Williams."

"Will do, Auntie. Wait, wha-"

"Keep moving," Steve orders, pulling her along and glancing nervously over his shoulder.

* * *

They return to the shrimp truck safely and Kono sets up the computer on top of a freezer full of uncooked shrimp, while Steve adjusts his sling, rotating his shoulder and scowling the whole time.

She works her magic and pulls up everything she can access with her HPD password on her cousin's computer. Lani is apparently younger than Steve imagined because her technology is as girly as it comes. The laptop is pink and slim, but Kono assures him that there's plenty of processing power hidden in that sparkly, sticker covered case.

"What can we do from here?" he asks, scratching at the face of some tweeny pop idol that's stuck next to the touchpad, until Kono bats his hand away.

"Not everything," she admits. "What do you have in mind?"

There's something that's been nagging at him since Tanner Downey first entered the equation. "His brother-in-law can't be the only one helping him out. Downey would need contacts on the island. Someone to send business his way. You don't just show up and build an illegal gun business in three days."

He can see the wheels spinning in Kono's head, feel them turning in his own. "Who would be willing to help him?" Kono asks, tilting her head at the screen in front of her. "He hasn't been here long enough to make any connections."

"His sister lives here," Steve offers. "He could have set something up a while ago. Sat on it until it was convenient to make a move."

This must have sparked an idea because she starts to type, until a chat window pops up, taking up the majority of the screen. Steve squints. "Who's _sportsguy409_?"

"One of Lani's friends, I guess," she answers, closing the window. "I didn't know kids still used instant messaging."

She's sort of shuffling on her feet as she works, and Steve realizes that she's been standing for an awfully long time, considering she was in the hospital for a knee injury that morning. He pulls over a tall box of what looks like cocktail sauce and orders her off her feet. With her injured leg propped up on the cooler and Steve crouching by her shoulder, she pulls up Downey's financials and expertly skims through the last few months.

"Looks like the last time Downey was here was about the same time as his sister's wedding," she says slowly, spotting the payment for an airline ticket. "While he was on the island, he made a major deposit to the bank account of someone named Nate Gillings."

"Payment for something?"

Kono shrugs. "Maybe another loan."

"Yeah," Steve sighs, "Downey's a real good Samaritan. Has Gillings returned anything?"

"Doesn't look like it."

"Okay. If Gillings still owes him money, Downey has him under his thumb. Could have him working for him..."

"...like he did with his brother-in-law," she finishes, switching over to Gillings' financials. "Gillings is unemployed, but it looks like he gets a drink from the same bar at the same time, everyday."

Steve grins. "Then we should pay him a visit."

* * *

By the time they reach Gillings' favorite bar, "sportsguy409" (also known as _Nick_, Casanova of the eighth grade) has messaged them twice more, and then texted to ask why Lani won't answer him. It's a good thing that Steve is driving because otherwise he would have already handled the situation in a way that Kono's cousin probably wouldn't appreciate. They jump down from the truck and Kono takes a few minutes to train herself to ignore the pain in her walk. Steve's ditched his sling in the truck. His shoulder aches without the support, but they can't afford to look impaired in front of the suspect.

He's pretty impressed with Kono's _my-knee-isn't-screaming-for-mercy-at-all_ walk when they enter the bar, and when they spot Gillings, it almost feels like a normal day at work.

"Nate Gillings," Kono calls, flashing her badge. "We need to talk to you about Tanner Downey."

"Never heard of him."

"You've never heard of him?" Steve asks, skeptically. "Not three months ago? He didn't offer you anything?"

Gillings shakes his head, but avoids eye contact. Steve glances at Kono, who seems to have noticed, too. "Officer Kalakaua, looks like we were mistaken. Mr. Gillings has never met Tanner Downey."

"Huh. That's odd." Kono holds up Lani's bedazzled cell phone with Gillings' financials open in the browser, and Steve points at the screen. "Do you see that, Nate? Do you know what that means?"

"That you broke into a middle schooler's locker?" he asks, grinning at the dolphin sticker on the lower, right corner. Steve snaps his fingers in the general vicinity of Gillings' face and then points to the screen again. "_Watch it._ What's on the screen. That's your bank account, and that's Downey's money _in_ your bank account. You still want to tell us you don't know him?"

The phone rings and the screen fades away from the account information. Nick's name flashes across the screen and the bar fills with sound of a high-pitched teenage boy's voice, backed with keyboard music and a tambourine.

Gillings smirks. "You should answer that. It, like, _totally_ could be that cute guy from Algebra."

"Shut up," Steve growls, as Kono smoothly dismisses the call. "And listen. We know that you're working with Downey."

"Boss," Kono interrupts, eyes scanning the rest of the bar, where patrons are quickly rising from their seats.

"Just a second, Kono," he says, focusing on Gillings. "And we know that Downey isn't the kind of guy you want to be connected to when the bottom falls out of his little operation. Tell us where he is, and _maybe_ you won't go down with him."

He hears a scuffle behind him and turns to see Kono on top of a burly, tattooed guy who just tried to jump him. Before he can reach out to help her up, Gillings grabs his bad shoulder and whirls him around, thrusting a fist towards his face.

* * *

Meanwhile, at headquarters, Danny Williams is imagining all the _very_ fine ways he could kill his partner for refusing to allow him even an _hour_ of peace. After the morning he'd had, the detective needed a few hours to cool down, which he expected to get with Steve and Kono safely tucked into their hospital beds, while their partners solved a homicide in a sane, logical manner. For the most part, following leads would be done in a non life-threatening way. And at the end of the day, they would catch the murderer and collect their healing partners from the hospital, and they would all live rationally ever after.

This is not how things were supposed to go.

Chin is on the phone with a nurse from the hospital, who is explaining that their resident adrenaline junkies did not bother to sign out against medical advice and instead _literally_ made a run for it, out through the ER doors. His face is calm, but Danny's betting that's not what he's feeling.

"Their cell phones are still there, so we can't track them. The nurse said they were whispering about a _'take down'_ on their way out."

Marvelous. Just, _marvelous_.

The other man is tapping his fingers on the smart table, looking dark and brooding and not zen at all. "What's wrong?" Danny ask. "What aren't you telling me?"

"The doctor told Kono that she might need another surgery on her knee," Chin sighs. "Not a huge deal, but..."

"But now she's not thinking straight, and she's bound to be more reckless than her normal, more than slightly insane self," Danny finishes. "I get it. Same for McGarrett. Think his fragile super SEAL ego took a beating when he couldn't nab Downey at the warehouse. We'll catch up to them eventually. And maybe commit them to the hospital on a more permanent basis..."

Chin smiles and nods, turning back to the smart table and accessing traffic cameras near the hospital. "Sounds good, brah."

"Pause that," Danny interrupts. "Is that the _shrimp truck_?"

* * *

"You want some ice, boss?"

Kono is sitting on top of the cooler, slurping a cone of grape shave ice and pressing a bag of _unflavored_ shave ice to her knee. At his nod, she scoops some more into another bag and wraps it in a dishtowel, which he presses against his quickly swelling face. He hurts everywhere, but his pride is somewhat restored by the fact that he and his protégé won a bar fight against fifteen full grown men, while injured. However, Gillings slipped out in the midst of the scuffle, and now they're back to square one. He sighs. "Well, that was a total loss."

Eyes sparkling, Kono grins and reaches into her pocket. "Maybe not a _total_ loss."

"Is that-?"

"Gillings' phone?" she asks, looking like she's about to burst with satisfaction. "Sure is. I grabbed it from his back pocket while he was trying to smash that beer bottle over your head." She pauses. "Sorry 'bout that."

For some reason, he finds it impossible to care that he almost had glass shards imbedded in his head while Kono was playing pickpocket, because he's just so _proud_. He throws his good arm around her shoulders and smiles back at her, jumping up to sit on the cooler next to her. The phone blinks to life, and she scrolls through Gillings' messages.

"Well rookie," he says, adjusting the ice on his face. "Let's see what you got."


	3. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

At first, they don't get much use out of the phone. They find Tanner Downey's name in the contacts list, but it's not like either of them really expected Gillings to be telling the truth, so it doesn't tell them anything they don't already know. There are a few text messages between the two, plenty of calls, too. However, any conversations they may have had about where Downey could be, must either not exist or have taken place in a phone call. Steve's dejected, he'd been hoping this was going to be the major break they were looking for. To top it off, they're both missing their badges after the scuffle in the bar.

Still, he keeps up an optimistic front for Kono. Doesn't want her to think she didn't do a good job by getting the phone because _she did_. Not her fault that she swiped the phone of one of the only people left on the island that doesn't prefer to communicate using 140 characters or less.

They're in the middle of forming a new plan when they hear the beep signaling a new text.

"Tell Nick no one wants to talk to him," Steve grumbles, scrolling through Gillings' past tax records, looking for something that just isn't there. Kono rolls her eyes. "Wrong phone. It's for Gillings."

She looks up from the phone and smiles. "It's from Downey."

_We're waiting. Where are you?_

Tilting the phone so he can see, she opens the window to reply. "Should I ask for directions?"

"What if he's been there before?"

Kono sucks her lip between her teeth, before typing a new message. _I'm here already. Where are you?_

They both know it's sort of a long shot. Downey could already know that his lackey was separated from his smart phone. Gillings could be standing next to him for all they know. So they're both surprised when they get answer back.

_Place on Hau'oli St. Get here now._

Steve starts the truck, waits for her to crawl up front, and drives. Spirits restored, Kono turns on the radio and bops along with the music, and Steve doesn't even glare. Pressing their luck a bit, she fires off another text once they find the correct street. _330?_

_250._

After Downey's correction, she feigns a personal emergency and powers the phone down. It may have seemed suspicious, but they don't need to pretend to be Gillings anymore, so they aren't too concerned.

Because Kono can't crouch down for long with her knee the way it is, Steve goes alone to survey the place. Slips into the back yard and stoops low to peer in the window. He doesn't like what he sees. Downey is definitely there, reclining on an arm chair, surrounded by his loyal soldiers. He counts six and scowls. Less than there were at the bar, but these men are armed, and their blood isn't flooded with alcohol.

When he returns to home base and reports his findings to Kono, she sighs. Knows the implications as well as he does. "Guess we should call for back up," she says quietly.

He nods. Tries not to think about being dragged back to the hospital while HPD handles the take down. Instead, he thinks about other ways to get the job done and comes up with this little gem, which he recognizes as a bad idea before he even vocalizes it. "Or we could wait until early tomorrow morning. Catch them off guard."

Kono pretends to be unexcited, but he can see the spark as it works its way up her spine, eventually illuminating her eyes. "Probably that would work just as well."

Their plan falls into place from there. They'll attack at four the next morning, when any decent thug would be fast asleep. _After_ they restrain the prisoners and get some retribution, they'll call the rest of Five-0. And gloat. Probably a lot.

"We'll pick up some zip ties from the hardware store we passed on the way here," Steve says, and it looks like they're really going to go through with this.

"Okay," she agrees, "Except, I don't have any cash on me. You?"

Steve swears.

There's a flaw in the plan.

* * *

They do their best to avoid calling attention to themselves, but they _do_ look like they've experienced both an explosion and a bar fight in the last twenty-four hours, which comes across as suspicious. Steve is wearing a pair of Kamekona's large, aviator sunglasses, which they found in the center console of the truck, in a valiant but mostly unsuccessful attempt to cover the bruising on his face. Kono is still limping, and while a set of crutches would coordinate nicely with his sling, they can't exactly go back to the hospital to claim some.

So no, they do not look like the sort of people that should be exerting themselves with a home improvement project. This is not in their favor.

It's a little ridiculous how nervous they are considering this is possibly the least illegal/dangerous thing they've ever done while on the job. However, they're both without their badges and dealing with a certain amount of guilt because the owner of the store is elderly and looks frail but friendly, and this goes against every inkling of right and wrong that they have.

"_Seriously_," Kono reprimands herself, whispering aloud as they weave through the aisles. "It's not like they cost more than twenty bucks."

"We'll pay him back," Steve promises. "With interest."

He keeps watch while Kono slips the package under her shirt and rearranges the loose fabric to disguise the bulge. It doesn't really work, so they hope the owner's thick, round glasses don't work as well as they look like they do.

"Maybe he'll just think you're pregnant," Steve says weakly, looking mournfully at the foot long, three inch deep rectangle protruding from her stomach.

"With what? _An encyclopedia_?"

On their way out, he swipes a pair of miniature binoculars too, because they've already crossed a line anyway, and they need them, so why not? He positions himself between her and the cashier as they make their way towards the door, loudly discussing how disappointed they are that the store didn't stock their favorite brand of fertilizer. When they near the counter, a rough voice yells for them to stop where they are. Steve looks towards the owner/cashier and blinks.

He is holding a gun on them.

_Really?_

Kono breathes an exhausted, incredulous chuckle, sounding frustrated, disbelieving, and just a little bit delirious. Should they live to see the inside of the shrimp truck again, he'll probably try to get her to eat something other than shave ice and catch a couple hours of sleep while he keeps watch because she's certainly not running at full capacity. If this elderly gentlemen doesn't shoot them over a twelve dollar pack of zip ties, that is.

"Put it back," the owner warns, "Or die. Makes no difference to me."

Not as frail as he looks, but Steve's even more puzzled by the gun. He doesn't recognize the style, and he's sort of the expert on these things. Something custom? Foreign, maybe?

Kono is looking at him with wide, earnest eyes, trying to communicate something that he can't decipher. He puts a hand on her back as he steps forward to reason with the other man, only to feel the fabric of her shirt brush his hand as she makes a run for it, before he can even _think_ to tug her back.

His breath gets caught in his throat, choking him, when the owner fires and Kono lurches forward. _She's hit_, he thinks, wondering _what went wrong in her head_ to make her do something this stupid. Steve spots the wound and blinks in surprised horror. The back of her shoulder is wet, shirt torn away and bare skin blossoming in a splotch of vivid-

_Green?_

* * *

With painstaking precision, Steve lowers the cloth to her forehead, mopping at the green paint and wincing at the welt that's revealed once it's gone. There's splotches of paint all over her clothing, which is probably hiding more _more_ welts, and if she feels anything like he does, her entire body is aching. Still, it's better than being _shot_.

He sits back on his heels and studies her face, narrowing his eyes. "You're insane."

Kono smiles.

"How did you know it was a paintball gun?" he asks, wetting the cloth again and scrubbing at some paint under his ear.

She shrugs, opening a water bottle to rinse the green spots out of her hair. "I went a couple times with some friends from the academy. It looked kind of like the one's we used."

Steve pauses, and whirls to face her. "_Kind of?_"

"Yep."

"You put yourself in the path of a gun that you were _kind of_ sure wouldn't kill you?" he asks, raising his voice to a volume that he hasn't used with her since she was sitting in their interrogation room, waiting for Fryer to bail her out. _"What were you thinking?"_

"Take it easy, brah," she says easily, looking at him like _he's_ the crazy one.

"I will not _take it easy_. What would your cousin have done to me if I let you die over a pair of binoculars? Did you ever think of that?"

She gives him a sharp look and snatches said binoculars out of his hand, before limping across the back of the truck and struggling into the driver's seat. "Sorry, _Danny_."

_Oh_, he thinks. _That was a low blow._

* * *

Eventually, he crawls into the front seat with her. They don't speak, but she silently hands him the binoculars, which he takes as a peace offering. She seems to have forgiven him for whatever he said to irk her earlier. However, she snaps at the piece of gum she found in the cup holder, and he's pretty sure she's doing it out of spite, to bother him. Or she could just be antsy. It occurs to him that they don't send her on enough stakeouts for her to have really gotten used to the monotony and boredom. When this is over, he'll have her tail some average tourist for a couple days. For the sake of practice.

It's getting late and they're starting to lose their light when they spot some movement. But it's not coming from the house.

"Is that-?"

Steve swears and scrambles out of the truck, Kono on his heels. They perform a flawless, almost silent take down, before dragging their captive into the back of the van. Nate Gillings sputters indignantly.

"Sorry, Nate," Steve says insincerely, grinning in a way that makes him look not very sorry at all. He pins Gillings down by the shoulders while Kono secures his hands and feet with their stolen zip ties. "Can't have you warning your buddies that we're coming."

"Don't worry," Kono chimes in. "We borrowed your phone and canceled your plans. It would rude to keep them waiting."

Steve nods solemnly. "Very rude."

Gillings is still throwing a tantrum, spitting and swearing up a storm until Kono crouches next to him, wearing a face that doesn't exactly seem friendly. "If you do not quiet down," she warns calmly, "I will shoot you. Is that clear?"

He stares at her with wide eyes before nodding slowly. She smiles and stands, grimacing when she realizes how far she's just pushed her knee. Leaning against the cooler, she rubs the aching joint and surveys her companions.

"Anyone in the mood for shrimp?"

* * *

At headquarters, Danny and Chin have their own prisoner to deal with. In the comfort of the conference room, they are circling their prey, who is seated on a desk chair in the middle of the room. Danny stops and narrows his eyes, dropping his voice an octave or two when he uses his best interrogation voice to address the suspect.

"We know you're helping them. And you're going to tell us where they are."

Kamekona glares back."You'll never make me talk."

The two remaining members of the task force exchange a glance and wordlessly switch tactics. Chin takes over, pulls up a chair next to his fellow Hawaiian, and puts on his "good cop" face. "Why, brah? What's in it for you?"

The bigger man shrugs. "Mostly because I dunno where they went."

"You didn't ask?" Danny asks in disbelief.

"Nah, bruddah," Kamekona says, mournfully. "I trust McGarrett and the little sister. It'll be the death of me one day. I see the best in people."

Chin pats the other man's large shoulder, and the three sit in silence, until it's broken by the sound of Kamekona's phone. It's on the table, so Danny snatches it up, squinting at the caller ID. "You know this number?"

Kamekona shakes his head.

With the phone on speaker, Danny answers the call and nods for him to speak.

"Aloha?"

"_Hey, brah. You don't happen to have any kind of tape lying around here do you? Long story."_

Chin sighs and reaches for the phone, but the detective shakes his head and turns off the speaker, instead holding the phone up to his ear.

"You listen, and you listen good, rookie..."

* * *

"Kamekona doesn't have any duct tape. We're just gonna have to live with listening to him talk for the next few hours."

Gillings, who has become quite the social butterfly since the initial shock of being held hostage in a food truck wore off, grins smugly. Kono steps on his foot.

"Damn," Steve sighs from the front seat, where he has the binoculars fixed on the rapidly darkening street. When he hears a noise from the back, he turns around to see her banging the phone against the fryer until the back pops off. While she pries the battery out with her fingernail, he looks at her oddly. "Anything else you want to tell me?"

"They got to Kamekona," she mutters, storing the powerless phone in the cooler. "And we probably shouldn't use that phone anymore."

"You talk to Danny or Chin Ho?"

"Danny."

"Did he seem-"

"Testy," Kono confirms. "Very testy."

He's not the only one. After less than an hour with Gillings, they're both ready to do just about anything to shut him up. "You're violating my third amendment rights," he complains loudly, while Kono is powering up the laptop.

One thin, dark eyebrow lifts. "We're quartering soldiers in your home?"

"Six-?"

She shakes her head.

"-teenth?"

"Nope," Kono says from on top of the cooler, where she is absentmindedly browsing the internet. Steve is still up front, keeping an eye on the house until the last possible moment. Every once in a while, he turns the binoculars towards the end of the street, half expecting to see the Camaro speeding in to put a stop to the operation, but it never comes. He's had a long day, and he'd like nothing more than to arrest Downey and his boys right now, so he can head home to sleep in his own bed. However, he also knows that when they end this mission and go back to HQ, his partner will be there waiting to end _him_.

A loud cry of, "I'm gonna have both your badges!" comes from the back, followed by something that sounded suspiciously like the sole of Kono's boot meeting some part of Gillings' body. Steve smirks. _You'd have to find them first._

Gillings tries to stomp his bound feet for emphasis. "I want to speak to your supervisor!"

"Hey, boss?"

He holds back a chuckle and lowers the binoculars, accepting that there's not really much left to do until morning. "Yeah, Kono?"

"Nate wants to speak with you."

Their prisoner repeatedly bangs his head off the wall behind him in frustration. No one tries to stop him.


	4. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

Gillings gives them a hard time about stealing from the elderly hardware store owner, for some reason doesn't think they've been suitably punished, so Kono picks his pockets again and comes up with a wallet filled with cash. Steve takes some with him for breakfast, and Kono develops a swear-jar-like system that has Gillings paying five dollars for every inappropriate comment he throws in her direction. Her boss would prefer to beat the little weasel to a pulp, but Kono insists they use her idea. He'd press harder to get his way, but he's picked up on a correlation between Gillings making an unwanted advance and Kono "accidentally" tipping him over so his face smacks against the floor and figures that she can look after herself.

When it's his turn to use the convenience store restroom, Steve jumps down from the truck and orders someone (he's not sure if it's Gillings or Kono) to _behave_. He looks down at himself and scowls at what he sees, knowing that there's no way he can play unobtrusive when he's visible injured and covered in green paint. Steve knows he looks bad, but Kono probably turned a few more heads, having taken a few paintballs to the face and chest when she turned around to command him to _move_ and come out looking like a dalmatian. So that's sort of a comfort.

The clerk looks at him suspiciously when he first enters. However, he's pleased to see that the blonde woman seems only slightly more wary of him than any other customer that comes in at 4:30 in the morning. Kono's own grand entrance probably prepared her for strange things to come. He ignores her glare when he enters the "customer's only" bathroom, because he _does_ plan to buy something. The fruit Kamekona keeps in the truck for smoothies and such hardly looks fresh, and Kono can only sustain herself on frozen water and flavored syrup for so long.

Steve finds a banana and a protein bar for himself, almost buys the same thing for Kono, but instead decides to be realistic and throw two stale malasadas from the display case into a to go box. On an impulse, he grabs a packaged multivitamin from the first aid section, hoping it will both assuage his guilt for enabling their rookie's fried dough habit and earn him brownie points from Chin when this is all over.

While the clerk is punching his purchases into the cash register, he pulls a newspaper from the stand next to the counter, figuring he has some time until the lighting's right for them to move in. He nearly drops it when he sees the front page.

_Five-0 Seeks Missing Witnesses in Warehouse Explosion: Psychological Evaluations Pending_

Apparently, Danny has been handling the press.

Steve puts the paper on the counter, front side down, before he takes the bag with the rest of his purchases, wondering if he should have sprung for coffee. This is already turning into a long day.

The clerk looks up at him while she rings up the paper, before leaning to look out into the parking lot, where the shrimp truck is visible, parked in three different spaces. She looks down at the paper again, and Steve realizes that they probably released the shrimp truck detail.

"Misunderstanding," he explains, smiling in a hopefully charming manner.

She gulps and nods slowly. "I'm sure it's a big one."

* * *

Back in the truck, Kono and Gillings are watching some teen drama that's streaming from the computer. Steve gives her an odd look, and Kono shrugs.

"Lani had is downloaded on the laptop," she explains. "And it keeps him quiet."

He lets it slide and unpacks the bag, watching Kono's eyes light up at the box of malasadas. She digs in happily, but stares at him like he's lost it when he drops the vitamin into her palm. Maybe he has. Sleep deprivation and all that...

"What? Nothing for me?" Gillings complains loudly. With an aggravated jab of his finger, Steve points to his injured eye. Gillings shrugs. "Fair enough."

"You can have this," Kono offers, tossing the unwrapped vitamin in his direction.

Steve sighs.

He checks his watch and discovers they still have time to kill. Gillings is occupied, and they've been fed, so they can start preparations and finalize their plans. "Come here, Kono," he says, pulling an elastic bandage from the convenience store bag. "Let's re-wrap your knee."

"Umm," Kono hesitates. "That's not really necessary, boss."

Clearing the top of cooler of various wrappers and tech gear they've accumulated, he doesn't really pay her protests much mind. Kono bites her lip when he helps her up onto the cooler, looks at him nervously when he starts to roll her pant leg back.

Steve pushes the fabric aside, reveals her injured knee, and pictures the many agonizing, drawn-out ways that Chin Ho could possibly kill him.

Because he _is_ going to kill him.

"Kono," he says with exaggerated patience, gently prodding her knee, which has swollen to the size of a softball. "I thought you said the doctor told you that you were good to go."

She shrugs. "I also told Gillings he might have a chance with me if he shut up and went to sleep."

"Hey," Gillings protests, sounding offended. "I'll have you know, after ten minutes with a man like me..."

Kono pulls a face and pockets a five from his wallet.

Her knee is black (just black, not blue, which is not a good sign), and Steve's not sure how he's going to get the leg of her jeans to fit back over it. He has to use context clues (_namely the fact that it's between her shin and her thigh_) to recognize it as a knee at all.

So Kono's not going to be chasing anyone. Or running _from_ anyone.

They need a more creative plan...

Gillings has the paper in front of him, leaned against a cardboard box. "Is this about you two screwballs?" he asks triumphantly, smirk in place.

"Shut up," Kono snaps, hissing as Steve presses against a particularly tender spot and dumping shave ice down Gillings' back.

...and fast. They need a creative plan, fast.

* * *

Tanner Downey wakes to the screeching of the smoke detector and scrambles to his feet, scrubbing sleep from his face with his hands. _If one of those morons left a cigarette burning in the house, they're all gonna pay..._

His men were sleeping on the living room floor, in nylon sleeping bags that get caught around their ankles as they try to make a run for it. They're clumsy with exhaustion and panic, tripping over themselves and others as they try to hurry out the door.

Downey slept in a warm, comfortable bed, so this is not his problem.

Especially because he catches the scent of smoke in the air.

When he hits the front door, he practically yanks it off the hinges with his eagerness. Fire and the kind of fire_power_ that he's keeping in the garage do not mix well, but when he tries to get to the garage, he smacks into a solid wall of metal. He blinks at the logo.

_Kamekona's Shrimp?_

By the time he regains his senses, some of his lackey's are already heading into the kitchen where the back door is located, possibly escaping _before him_. This is not acceptable, so Downey pushes past them and makes for the door. There's a thick layer of dark smoke touching the ceiling, drifting down into the rest of the room and clouding in his throat and lungs. He needs to get to the door, let some smoke out and get a shot of clean oxygen...

Downey feels his way to the back door and jerks it open. But this time, he encounters a solid wall of _SEAL_...

With a gun.

McGarrett grins. "How's it going, Downey?"

The friggin' lunatic closes the door behind him and steps forward. _Does he want to die of smoke inhalation?_

He orders his men to _do something_, to retreat to the living room and grab their weapons, or grab McGarrett. _Anything to get them out of there._

One of them has the sense to listen to him and make for the kitchen door. He reaches just as it slams shut, propelled by that hot, local cop that interviewed him yesterday, who has apparently been hiding behind the door.

Again, with a gun.

The woman grins and flicks the lock, holding her gun on the man nearest to the door as she makes her way to the window above the sink. She pushes it open and uses a dishtowel to drop a skillet of flaming _something_ into the sink, where she douses it in water before returning to her post.

"Aloha, brah," she says brightly, holding her gun level with his chest. "Bad news about your warehouse..."

* * *

When HPD arrives, three suspects are already restrained on the floor, including Downey. There's a skillet of burnt shrimp still smoking on the stove, and a food truck parked flush against the front door. The officers pick through the weapons abandoned on the living room floor, next to crumpled sleeping bags. They search the garage and find three crates of illegal automatic weapons, along with invoices for the sale of those weapons.

Still, Steve and Kono aren't smiling.

"How long do you think we have?" Kono asks, struggling with a suspect that doesn't quite want to be pinned. Steve shrugs, grappling with his own capture, and refusing to look at Duke Lukela, who called Chin within seconds of discovering them in the kitchen. "Probably not long."

The back door opens with a bang, distracting his suspect long enough for Steve to wrestle him to the floor. The other lackeys look up in terror, but Steve and Kono just sigh.

"Freeze," someone orders, voice dropping dangerously. "Do _not_ move."

One of Downey's men, hands locked behind his back, calls back indignantly. "Where do you think we're going, man? We're already arrested."

"Not you," Danny corrects, eyes narrowing at his prey. Steve and Kono continue to subdue their captives with slow, controlled movements, trying not meet his eyes. "_Them_."

Two of the braver arrests look hesitantly hopeful and back toward the kitchen door. "Hey," Danny yells. "Hey. Okay, you, too."

"You said not us-"

"_So help me_, the next person to move gets a bullet to the foot. I don't care _who_ it is."

Steve frowns.

"Could use some help over here," Kono calls, because she's fallen (_forcefully_, onto a prone suspect's back) and she can't get up. Her left knee is pressing the much larger man to the ground, while she restrains his hands behind his back. Her right knee, however, has given up and given out, and she can't use it to support herself anymore.

Danny comes to her aid, pulls her off of the suspect and hands him off to one of the uniformed officers before he gets a good look at her face. "_Jesus_, this one's got the pox."

"No," Kono says cheerfully, letting him haul her onto her good foot. "Just welts, brah. From a paintball gun."

"A paintball gun," he repeats slowly, turning that over in his head. "That would explain the..." Here, he pauses to gesture towards her paint smeared clothing, arms waving weakly. "...that. That...okay." He breathes deeply. "Okay."

Hesitantly, she reaches to pat his shoulder, still gripping his other arm for balance because her knee can _literally_ take no more. Danny looks at her oddly, so it does not look like her attempt at comfort really hit home. "Okay," he says again because that's apparently all he can come up with. "Let's get your cousin over here. See what he thinks about that."

Chin doesn't see the humor in the situation. Kono tries, though.

"When you think about it, cuz,"she starts, as Chin winds an arm around her waist and helps her limp towards the ambulance that's waiting outside. He cuts her off. "I don't want to think about it, Kono. I really don't."

Danny watches them go, but his attention swings back to his partner when he hears a hacking cough. "What? You've been smoking, too?"

"They set the freakin' place on fire," Downey complains from the floor.

Silently, the detective blinks and waits for a rational explanation. Steve sucks in some air. "That's mostly an exaggeration."

He coughs again.

Danny does not allow himself to throttle him.

* * *

Fate must be equally ticked off at them because the same nurse that tattled to Chin after they broke out is sent to check their lungs when they're admitted. Again. She finishes with Kono (who makes a face at Steve behind her back) and straightens, marking her findings in her chart. Eying them both, she huffs.

"You have visitors."

Steve glances at Kono, who shakes her head vigorously. His thoughts exactly. "We're not really up for visitors, right now," he explains.

"Nonsense. These visitors are _police_."

Struggling to sit up straighter, Kono gets a desperate, panicked looked on her face. "But we're the police."

"Alright," the nurse says, smiling serenely. "Could I see some badges then?"

Steve sighs. "Send them in."

They must have been waiting on the other side of the door because Danny and Chin enter seconds after getting "permission". If it could even be called that. He examines the looks on their faces and comes to the conclusion that,yes, they heard everything their partners said to the nurse. Wonderful.

"Alright," Danny says, standing in the middle of the room and looking volatile. "Let's summarize, shall we? Leaving the hospital. Whose bright and shiny idea was that?"

They stay silent, but Kono points a hesitant finger in his direction, looking apologetic. He smiles back at her._ No hard feelings._

"I'm in shock," his partner deadpans. "And who went along with it?"

Chin sits on the edge of his cousin's bed and gently redirects her finger so it's pointing at her own forehead.

"Okay. So we have Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, I'll let you figure out who's who, out to save the world in their magical shrimp truck. Where does the paintball gun come in?"

He can see Kono staring wide-eyed at her cousin, looking mortified at the thought of admitting what they did in front of him. Steve takes a deep breath. He's the boss here. "Everything turned out alright, Danno. Let's just take a breath-"

"Everything turned out okay? Is that _seriously_ what I just heard you say?"

"Dan-"

But Danny's too far gone, a rant already building in his chest, and there's not holding him back. "Everything turned out okay?! _You set fire to a residential area, today._ There are at least a dozen thugs with busted lips and a vandalized bar out for your blood!"

"And you," he spins to face Kono, who tries to squirm behind her big cousin. Chin, however, is having none of it. "Proverbial Sancho to his Don Quixote! Do you like walking with a limp? Is that what's going on here?!"

He stops to take a big breath. And then another. "Because you can obviously not be trusted to stay here and do as are you are told," he continues, "We've hired someone. A nurse of sorts."

Silently, he steps back into the hallway, and when he comes back in, Kamekona is by his side. "Aloha, patients," he says brightly.

"I thought you were on our side," Kono says, outraged. Kamekona shrugs. "Sorry, little sistah. I'm an _entrepreneur_. I go where the money is. Which reminds me, we need to discuss some things."

Danny smirks and gives a triumphant wave on his way out, ignoring his partner's pleading eyes. Chin leans in to peck the top of Kono's head, hiding a grin in her hair. They both slip out, unnoticed by Kamekona, who has started with a hard-hitting question.

"Who's the squirrely haole tied up in my place of business?"

**The End.**


End file.
